"Horse Show" versus "Competition"

The past few years, I've tried to make a conscious effort to stop saying the phrase "Horse show" and instead say "competition".

It's a natural occurrence in the horse world to say "Horse show", but I think that vastly undermines the immense athletic undertaking that we do and the months and years of hard work, sweat, tears, blood, and so much more that we put into our sport.

To me, saying that I am going to a "horse show" makes it seem trivial and "less than" other sports. There is no other sport I can think of that we don't refer to as a "competition" or at least "the game". There's no other sport we use the word "show" to describe it. It's not a football show. It's not a boxing show.

Maybe I'm just weird and alone in my thoughts here. But I think words and connotations mean something, both on a conscious as well as subconscious level. Our sport deserves to have the general public respect the immense effort it takes to train and compete these 1200 lb animals. And I think one tiny step in that direction is reinforcing the idea that what we do is a "competition". Not a "show". 

There are still far too many people out in the general public who think we just "sit there and the horse does all the work". This thinking will never completely go away, but I can’t help but think that maybe a small part of why it is so prevalent is because we use the word “show”, which implies 0 physical abilities and just a visual presentation. So maybe by being careful with our word selection, we can start building a little more respect for the athletic undertaking that we do.